If you’ve seen the new animated film, Batman: The Killing Joke, you know that somehow, someway, despite all the fan rage against the DCEU films, they actually managed to mess up the un-mess-up-able. Alan Moore wrote Batman: The Killing Joke in 1988, and it instantly became the most talked about and adored comics maybe of all time. It is the quintessential Batman & Joker story, featuring the Joker committing awful acts in an effort to prove to Batman that all it takes is one really bad day to make a good man go crazy. These include shooting and paralyzing Barbara Gordon, as well as the extended torture of her father. DC animated movies have long been the standard in comic animation, so when critics and fans both slammed this adaptation, it became an easy target for the gang at Screen Junkies to give it the Honest Trailers treatment.

Check out the Honest Trailer below.

Warner Bros. and DC Comics announced on Friday that they will be producing three new direct-to-video animated features featuring Batman for release in 2016. With Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice poised to explode onto the big screen next March, there will no doubt be another resurgence of interest in Dark Knight-related merchandise.

Among the three new animated movies coming our way next year will be an adaptation of what is arguably one of the greatest stories of the Caped Crusader ever told, Batman: The Killing Joke.

A lot of sites are probably putting together several lists right about now in honor of this Friday’s release of The Dark Knight Rises that would name most of these as “must-reads if you’re wanting to get into Batman comics,” or something to that effect. But how I’d like to phrase this entry is in more of an academic sense. These books that I’m about to suggest to you are being referred to as “Read these first” because a lot of the more “higher learning” readings require a sophisticated palette that must be developed by learning the different takes on the character of Batman prior to jumping shoulders’ deep into the complex and clever stories of these more advanced works.

Now, that’s not to say that any of the comics listed are bad. Sure I may not like some of them as much as others, but based on my research and personal experiences, the comics listed here in Batman 101 are some of the books that have gotten most hardcore Batman fans to start loving the character in the same way I do. Keep in mind that this is a list of comic books, so you’ll look elsewhere to see things like Batman ’66 and Batman: The Animated Series. So, if you’re ready, let’s get started with something I like to call Batman 101: A Beginner’s Guide To The Dark Knight.